Du~Du~Ding~
Early in the morning, Dean was woken up by the jingling sound. He narrowed his eyes and took a look.
My cousin, Jerry. At this moment, he was staring at the computer screen with a pair of red eyes, while his hands kept pounding on the keyboard.
And with every tap of his finger, the speaker under the display will make all kinds of "ding" sound sounds.
"Jerry, don't tell me you haven't slept all night?" Dean turned over lazily, and his eyes were still half narrow and half open.
"Dean, Mario Bros. are really fun, but Nintendo is really a vampire.
Can you imagine a game cassette that has been ported and sold in RB for $34.99 in the United States?! Why don't they rob it?"
Hearing Jerry's complaint, Dean, who was lying in bed, couldn't help laughing at the corners of his mouth.
To be honest, when he heard that a plate of fried cold rice tape was sold for $35 last night, he couldn't help sighing that the old man's cutting of leeks was clean and neat.
In Jerry's words, "I watch an adult paid channel for only $4, and I can get a smooth release. $35? It's enough for me to come 8 times!"
Especially for children from working families like them, $35 is really too expensive.
So Dean's skills came in handy. He was given a computer connected to the network service, and he had a way to play free Nintendo games.
This is also Jerry's unique knur of Dean. As the earliest group of geeks in this era, these jobs are certainly not difficult for him.
After all, the name of geeks is not in vain. Of course, in the eyes of those big companies, it may be more appropriate to call them hackers.
What Dean did was very simple, that is, to write an application that simulates the NES host, or simulator for short.
Then go to the BBS forum to find the data source of the corresponding game, and then they can play various console games for free.
Of course, in the spirit of information sharing, which is also the creed of hackers in the current era. Everyone will put these programs they make on the forum for free for mutual communication.
Dean shares the simulator he made for free, and another wave of hackers will also put the game data source they extracted on a specific page of the forum.
In this way, everyone can play all kinds of expensive casssete games for free.
However, in order to avoid trouble, such sharing is only carried out in specific small circles and must be free of charge.
In addition, everyone has a clear division of labor. Some people make simulators, some people extract game data sources, and some people share keys.
The cracking of the game is divided into several independent steps and executed by different people, so that it is not pirate.
Moreover, the laws on the Internet are not perfect in this era, so this is a gray area.
The simulator used by Jerry now is a program written by Dean before.
Last night, Dean just downloaded it again on the BBS forum.
However, the network service provided by Ohio American Network is too slow, which is calculated in Kb.
A software of less than a trillion, plus more than a dozen game data sources, unexpectedly went down in the middle of the night. You should know that the game casssetles only take up about 100Kb of memory, and their combined capacity is very small.
In order to download these things, the network fee of four or five hours is inevitable. Nowadays, network services are charged on an hourly basis, and the network services provided by American Network are $2.99 per hour.
You need to dial the Internet before each use. Although my aunt's phone bill will be more than ten dollars next month, it's all worth it.
With more than a dozen games, Jerry is good enough to play the whole winter vacation, which is why his eyes are red now.
"By the way, Jerry, don't you have class today?" It was past eight o'clock, and Dean simply got up and was ready to wash up.
"Today is Saturday, Dean." Jerry is still addicted to Mario.
Well, Dean didn't have to go to school before the New Year, so he didn't pay attention to the day of the week today.
After going to the bathroom to wash up, there was the sound of Aunt Rachel asking them to go downstairs for breakfast.
My aunt kept complaining at the dinner table, and another factory in Youngstown was closed. Or a shopping mall is ready to move out of Youngstown because of continuous losses.
Since Black Week, the whole city has been suffering from cancer. I feel that there are fewer and fewer people here every day, and it is dying chronically.
Black Monday in my aunt's mouth refers to September 19, 77 in Youngstown. On that day, the Campbell factory of the sheet and pipe company, the largest factory in the Mahonin River Valley, was closed.
And its closure is like a signal. The American Steel Company's factory closed in 1980, the McDonald's factory closed in 1981, and the Republican Steel Plant closed in 1982.
Without exception, these factories are located around Youngstown, which has directly led to a sharp drop of more than 40,000 jobs in Youngstown in the past decade.
The loss of jobs has turned the population of 140,000 in Youngstown in the 1970s to more than 90,000 today.
All the white families with the ability and good family conditions have moved out of here, leaving most of whom are colored and the lower class of white people.
Dean's family and aunt's family are the ones who stayed. The reason why they didn't leave is that they grew up here.
Besides, they don't know where to go? The education that has not graduated from high school gives them no choice. They still have at least one job to stay in Youngstown.
If you go to the south, you may become a homeless family and can only rely on the welfare of the government to live.
This is undoubtedly shameful, especially for white people who grew up in baby boomers, who firmly believe that they can realize the American dream by relying on their hands.
However, although they stayed in Youngstown, their aunt's family barely maintained the decentness of their middle class.
Uncle Frank works as a supervisor at a moving company with a salary of $13.5 per hour. Aunt Rachel works part-time as a cashier at the newly opened Wal-Mart supermarket, with an hourly salary of $7.5.
The federal minimum hourly wage in 1988 was $3.35. Theoretically, the salary of the two of them seems to be good and worthy of the title of middle class.
But although they have such an hourly wage, it does not mean that they can work 8 hours a day.
Especially Aunt Rachel, who only works three or four hours a day on average, and someone will come to replace her when the time comes.
After all, part-time cashiers like them sign outsourcing contracts. They just need to appear at the busiest time of the day, and they don't need them at other times.
Therefore, the economic situation of my aunt's family is average, excluding mortgages, living expenses, Debbie's college expenses, etc., there is little left.
In the nagging of his aunt, Dean Cao Cao ate a few slices of bread and drank a glass of milk, and was ready to go to Wood Street in the south of the city, where Matthew was. The address of Wedner Law Firm is located.
After listening to Frank's introduction last night, Dean decided to talk to the union lawyer today. After all, this matter should be done sooner rather than later.
Frank wanted to be with him, but Dean declined. Saturday and Sunday are the busiest time for moving companies. Frank usually can't leave.
Besides, the law firm is in the south of the city, not far from here, so Frank and Rachel agreed with Dean's own suggestion after a little consideration.
Dean's head is so smart that it must be difficult for him to deal with lawyers. Frank and they took it for granted.
However, before leaving, Frank gave Dean another MCI phone card and asked him to call his office directly if he had anything.
...
On Wood Street, Dean found an inconspicuous store in a suspicious area on the southern edge of the city according to the address on his business card.
The reason why it is suspicious is that it looks as dilapidated as the east of the city.
There are yellow-painted wall panels all around this law firm. Generally, uninhabited empty rooms are nailed to the wall panels by the landlord.
Those places that are not covered by the wall panels will be full of graffiti in less than two days. Higher windows will also be broken by stones of unknown origin, leaving a ferocious hole.
Dean never knew that there was such a place in the south of the city, which was perfectly in line with his imagination of the east and north of the city.
He looked at the billboard hanging on the glass of the store again, "Mathew. Wadena Law Firm - Real Estate, Civil Litigation, Family Law, Company Law..."
Well, it seems that this law firm is a veritable barrister.
Barristers, especially those lawyers who are willing to accept various businesses and do not specialize in fields, are farmers who are reluctant to make a living in the legal profession.
Obviously, this is not a good word. Dean frowned and looked at the law firm.
"I guess someone needs legal help?" Just when Dean doubted whether he was in the wrong place, a middle-aged man in a pinstripe suit with a casually open neckline appeared at the door of the store.